Joe Biden Announces Plan for ‘Free’ Tuition at Community Colleges and Public Schools
“under the Biden-Harris plan, community college will be free — and public colleges and universities will be tuition-free for families earning less than $125,000 a year”
Will the people who have paid tuition at these schools for years be getting refunds? How does this work?
FOX News reports:
Biden pledges tuition-free community college for all
In a tweet Wednesday, President-elect Joe Biden pledged to make community college tuition-free, while offering a similar benefit for students from families with working-class incomes or lower to attend state schools as well.
Biden wrote that a high school diploma is no longer enough for the occupational demands of the 21st Century.
“That’s why under the Biden-Harris plan, community college will be free — and public colleges and universities will be tuition-free for families earning less than $125,000 a year,” he tweeted.
Biden allies in Congress have for some time pressed for similar measures to be taken by the new administration.
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who is poised to become Senate Majority Leader if Democrats flip two outstanding Georgia Senate races in January 5 runoffs, has urged Biden to alleviate the financial pressure facing American students.
In remarks earlier this month, Schumer called for an erasure of student loan debt, pointing to $90 billion in arrears being held by students in the Empire State alone.
In the 21st century, twelve years of school isn’t enough. That’s why under the Biden-Harris plan, community college will be free — and public colleges and universities will be tuition-free for families earning less than $125,000 a year.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) December 24, 2020
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Comments
They understand that the students are adults, haven’t made any money, and are not owed college payed for by their parents even if those parents make 150k a year, right?
We’re letting the Free S*t Army steal a march on us yet once more.
When are we going to muster a Pay For Your Own S*t Army?
Perhaps someone might recall that “free” JC tuition in California in the 60s and 70s led to insanely high property taxes and an eventual taxpayer rebellion with Prop 13.
Although that bit of history seems to be scrubbed from easy Google searches.
This effort will provide plenty of incentive for colleges to raise their tuition, since the Feds will be paying for it. It’s a clever way to raise their prices without any decrease in demand.
It’s the federal bailout for the bloated and ideologically repugnant college sector of the economy.
Such a transparent fraud, yet America falls for it every time.
Just check out all these digital TV converters now available under the rock-hard $40 price floor that existed when the fedguv was handing out $40 discount certificates.
It’s cool when the executive branch starts writing legislation. Did they check with Congress, or is this going to be an Executive Order to spend $100B a year?
If the education isn’t visibly taking after 12 years, it’s unlikely that college is the fastest way with the greatest likelihood for self-sufficiency.
There should be gates at least on this money, based on likelihood of completing a useful degree. It’s stupid to create a slush fund to support grievance studies, sociology, and the other departments that produce a net negative for society.
And after those 12 years, 70 percent of my community college’s incoming students need remediation in English, math, or both.
That remedial coursework is not new. I recall (1960s) the push in getting us hard-heads to absorb enough of the English language to pass the”subject-A” exam at Cal; if you did not pass you had to take “dumbbell English”.
This is nothing more than a full-employment plan for all those studies studies majors.
If the current 12 years is not doing the job maybe it is the time to lift that hood and fix what is wrong. And maybe address the issue of people dropping out of high school and then, a few yeas late, crying about the poor employment options available to them. Someone needs to teach these kids that life is actually hard; it just looks easy when you watch from a distance as others who do it right.
That was Cal. Now we have remediation to meet the standards of any college including community college.
True. The arguement at the time, and it has persisted, is that a university should not admit students who do not meet whatever prerequisites are deemed to be necessary. Those unable to pass the test should seek remediation and either re-apply or take the test again.
That course of action could be hazardous to a diversity program.
“It’s stupid to create a slush fund to support grievance studies”
Not at all. It depends on your goals.
Note that Biden is backing off of ideas for paying existing student loan debt. Instead he wants to subsidize future college students.
That’s because he doesn’t care about the students. He cares about the colleges. They’re in real financial trouble, and he’ll do anything to stall the correction now starting in the sector. It’s a bailout for the Dem-friendly college sector.
Conservatives need to counter this argument not by conceding “well, OK, maybe for the poor people” but instead with an aggressive push to deconstruct the public school system, pre-K through 12.
Screw “free” college, make the progs fight tooth and nail to preserve their teacher’s union gravy train as it exists today.
“School Choice is a Civil Right” should be the rallying cry.
Excellent idea. No matter who’s in the chair on Jan 21.